The battle begins at
first daylight
as it sometimes does:
Blink
Blink
My eyes
blearily find focus
And I know so well
there will be only one –
One bird today
In this blue wash-out
The music on the stereo
doesn’t warm the space
The heat is pulled taut
to the corners of the room
It’s thin and impotent,
and time thickens quickly
In this cold.
The coal canary tires
easily – beak open
Gasping. It will say
“Away! You can’t
bear this much reality!”
I don’t stop to listen
this time around.
We cower under
the covers and fight –
Panic and desperation
make poor bed-mates
Are the curtains drawn?
Is it even day outside?
Even the sunlight
wears a mask
and sorrow a name in
that oak-dark doorway
On these:
the solitary bird days.